Acts of Faith in Times of War

Rev. Lynn Thomas Strauss

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Fear has become a weapon of our government once again.

Resistance to President Bush's Resolution for War in Iraq, and his demand for pre-emptive strike, has been slow in coming.

But slowly resistance is building.
Slowly voices of caution and coalition and democratic process are being heard in Washington.

But fear is a powerful weapon.

Fear persists across the land, because of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. Fear grows as the realization of our vulnerability grows.

We want our government to protect us.

We want security and safety for our children.

We want to confront evil, to eradicate terror.

We can't pretend any longer that being an American will give us a privledged safety…in fact in some parts of the world today, being an American makes us someone to be hated.

We can't pretend any longer that living in Montgomery Co will protect us from senseless acts of violence.

Of course, we are afraid.

The important question is; how do we act when we are afraid?

I have always been amazed and moved by those courageous people who can act faithful to their principles and values even when they are afraid.

Sometimes acts of faith seem small and insignificant.

But standing for our principles leaves an important legacy.

It inspires and empowers' others- it makes a difference.

Yesterday, some of you were here for Bill Henry's Memorial Service and you heard his son speak of his father's legacy.

The son remembered when his father spoke out for what he believed.

Bill had just returned from military service, it was 1945 and the armed forces was segregated by race. Bill returned to his studies at LeHeigh University and there was, of course, segregation at the university as well…and he found that the custodial workers at the school were not being treated fairly…and he wrote a column in the school newspaper advancing the rights of the, Black workers…he took a controversial position, not everyone agreed with him. But he sood up for what he believed was right.

Sometimes people pay a high personal price for acts faithful to their values.

I think of Pete Seeger, the wonderful folk singer, who stood faithfully for peace throughout the Viet Nam war. He stood up at rallies and led people in protest songs, at times he was taking his very life in his hands…and for a time he was blacklisted - barred from many concert venues…labeled anti-American. But he believed the war was wrong and he kept singing. And he inspired a movement for peace.

We are once again at a time in the history of America when speaking out for peaceful means takes courage.

Finally, some of our senators and congressmen are finding that courage.

And the resistance to war is beginning hopefully to build…when one person speaks out…someone takes courage from them and then two people speak out….and then others join in…and soon a more balanced, a more humane response becomes possible.

As Unitarian Universalists we do not speak with one voice.

Each person defines their values, their truth based on their own experience, their own conscience, their own best reason. Each of us must give concentrated attention to determining our truth in this moment.

Every articale and column presents us with a different lens …sooner or later, we must come to our own determination of what is wrong and what is right.

President Bush may win the argument and have the power to take us into another war, but only we can determine if he acts with the consent of the people.

Not all Uus opposed the war in Viet Nam, not all opposed the Gulf War, not all oppose the Resolution for War in Iraq that President Bush is proposing…

And yet our religious tradition along with all others, prefers peace over war, believes that reconcilation is possible…holds hope in things not yet seen.

If you go to the UUA website and look for the Commission on social witness…you will find a list of UUA resolutions for peace and disarmament…going back since merger in 1961. Year after year, the UUA General Assembly voted to stand and speak for peaceful solutions.

And our current UUA President, the Rev Bill Sinkford has written a pastoral letter opposing Bush's proposed pre-emptive strike policy…and Sinkford has signed on to a letter with the leaders of 49 other denominations asking for co-operation with the United Nations and a careful debate in congress before any military action is taken.

By speaking out and in union with other religious leaders, Rev Sinkford, joins a coalition, joins a conversation, makes our UU presence felt.

Here at RRUC, we have a peace and reconcilation task force, it is time to breathe new resolve into it.

It might seem an easy thing to speak for peace, but it is not.

The tragic events of September 11th and the anxiety surrounding the realities of globalization (such as movements of people in search of a safe land, the spread of disease across borders, the interdependence of world markets, our continued dependence on oil,) have allowed our government to claim a politics of emergency.

Fear of terrorism, anxiety about evil, allows the government to operate outside of the democratic process, to operate in a crisis mode that gives increased powers to the executive.

In times of national fear, one of the first rights to be lost, is free speech.

In fact the public space where debate and dialogue might occur has already been lost.

Can you remember a public place where people used to gather.

Think of a town square in New England, or a public park with a beautifully sculpted fountain in the center, - in Chicago there was a small park in the midst of a busy neighborhood…it was a place where ordinary citizens would mount a platform and speak their mind, it no longer exists…few places for public debate and expression exist any longer.

Where can the people debate the issues, where can we hear the concerns of the citizens?

The loss of this kind of public space makes debate in the halls of congress even more necessary. Why are ships on the way to the Persian Gulf even though the debate is unfinished?

I believe that the whole focus on war in Iraq is, in part, a diversion. One even I have succumbed to…Why am I speaking on peace this morning…when I should be speaking about the rising poverty rate in Washington DC or the increase numbers of homeless in our communities…or the risks of privatization of schools and prisons, or the numbers of people without health care coverage, or the spread of AIDS around the globe…or the tragic death toll on our highways.

Why do we let George Bush choose our agenda? Iraq is a diversion, a diversion from Israel and Palestine, a diversion from Bin Laden and the suffering people of Afganistan, a diversion from the coming November election.

Let me go back to acts of faith.

There are many ways to witness to our principles.

I urge you each to find the way that suits you…big or small, within your daily life, or in the public sphere, there are many ways to live your faith.

But it is never easy. When my children were growing up, we kept a small peace sign in the window of our front door. Our neighbors wondered about us, as they did on the days we flew our UN flag..but it meant a lot to us, our small peace statement through the years.

Our liberal theology and our humanism is not a transcendent other world set of beliefs, it is a here and now embodied set of principles that needs our deeds to come to fruition. We incarnate our faith, we live it every day.

Bearing witness can make us uncomfortable. The most potent expressions of faith sometimes make us squirm a bit.

Have you ever attended an evangelical worship service, have you ever encountered a Jehovah's Witness at your door, have you ever visited a political prisoner, or marched in a protest that turned strident? Bearing witness can make us uncomfortable.

I am made uncomfortable by some of the anti-globalization actions.

I can't even figure out if I agree or disagree, but I know I am uncomfortable.

In late August of this year, there was a world summit on sustainable development called by the UN and held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

There were 20,000 delegates from 190 nations who came together to contemplate protecting the environment and closing the gap between the haves and the have-nots around the world.

There were 10,000 unaccredited delegates making the 6 mile walk from Alexandra to the conference site. Shamans with bead tiaras beat drums to lead the protest. Most were poor Africans, The World Food Program estimates that 14 million people face starvation in southern Africa…(and the US proposes to finance a war in Iraq instead of feeding Africa…or helping to find water for those regions that are running out.)

The protesters are stopped far short of the conference site, which has been sealed off - the 10,00 unaccredited delegates kept out of site of the official delegates.

Yet, some have found a way to act on their principles…a way to speak truth to power…as the delegates stream outside the convention center for lunch- they pass 6,000 papier-mache statues with open mouths and raised palms.
They are called the mute-witnesses. 6,000 life sized statues …mute-witnesses to the truth of global economics, to oppression by the powerful.

And last weekend here in Washington anti-globalization protesters were marginalized by riot police…all reports said the protests were peaceful, yet hundreds were arrested, kept in shackles and held overnight in jail, all for participating in peaceful protests. No wonder some of us are afraid to exercise our freedom of assembly, our freedom of speech.

Imagine if all of our public squares and urban plazas were filled with mute-witnesses, silent witnesses to the violence of our economic system...to the knee-jerk, law and order call for pre-emptive military strike. There are many who have been afraid of speaking out, but our legislators are beginning to receive faxes and emails, people are finding their voices…still many are cynical and don't believe they can make a difference, imagine if all those who oppose Bush's policies of world domination , all who challenge his lack of faith in the democratic process , stood in public spaces around the country , simply stood as mute witnesses.

President Bush is leading us in an old, out-moded paradigm. His is a paradigm of domination and of violence. His is a paradigm that rests and thrives on fear. On revenge and bullying and intimidation.

Our country and the world needs a new paradigm. A paradigm of connection and interdependence…a paradigm that rests on shared grief and thrives on shared hope. A paradigm that expects those in power to use it well and with compassion.

A paradigm that trusts again in government by the people as Benjamin Barber, Professor at Rutgers University said recently, "Capitalism is not too strong , democracy is too weak…we have grown timid as citizens."

By acting on our faith , on our values of freedom of speech and trust in the
Democratic process, we can become stronger as citizens and we can inspire others to stand and speak out for what they believe.

In today's world it is more than idealism to say that we are all connected-it is true.
September 11th and the realities of globalization, the internet…and mutual dependence on the earth and her resources…make it impossible for one country to isolate itself.

We are all connected and therefore must work together for our shared future.

Dividing the world into good and evil forces is part of the old paradigm, standing together and sharing what we have is all that will save us.

It is essential that there continue to be acts of faith in times such as these.

And each act of faith, will make us less afraid. In an interconnected world we can share our courage and our strength and we can take from the courage and strength of others.

Last Saturday, 200,000 anti-war demonstrators marched in London and thousands more in Rome.

Writing after September 11th, kBarbara Kingsolver echoed Robert Frost and Dylan Thoomas when she wrote;

"The feeling that I dread most is not fear, but despair- the dim oppressive sense that the more things change, the more they stay the same; that each of us with a frozen heart "like an old-stone savage armed" will continue to move in darkness lifting boulders, patrolling the firmaments of divisive anger. I do not go gentle into that particular night; I burn and rage against the dying of all hope."

There is hope for the future as long as lone more person stands and speaks their mind and heart, as long as one more person acts with faith in the good, and with an awareness of our fundamental connectedness.

I felt hope last week when I saw hanging from an overpass on 495, not just American flags, but one large peace symbol drawn on a piece of cloth and fluttering over my head- reminding me of how it was when we sang songs of peace, how it was when we joined hands with strangers and called them brother and sister, how it was when we marched and believed that by standing in the public square and speaking our truth, we would be heard and it would make a difference. How it was, and how it can be again.

Despair is more deadening that fear…let all of us rage against the dying of hope.

Sometimes hope appears through absence…speaks through what is missing, the empty public square, the silence in the middle of the night, the loss of the towers, and all those thousands who died, absence is with us.

But, faith has to do with things unseen, with that which has not yet appeared.

Listen to the silence.

Mute witnesses are all around us.

And there are children's lives to be saved.

As long as there is the possibility of defeating injustice, there is reason to hope.

Join me in holding faith in a world community not yet seen.

Let fear be transformed and hope lifted.

So May It Be/Amen

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